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Thursday, March 16, 2006

Turning the Corner on W

At what point do you suppose it happened?

Conservative leaders staked so much into this president that they built a rubber stamp for everything that he asked for. Sure he asked for things that only helped Big Oil, Big Industry, and the extreme wealthy at the expense of everyone else; and sure he required the republican leadership to contradict their supposed ideology of fiscal restraint and accountability (not to mention any common sense)--but it certainly would be worth it in the end. Maybe W couldn’t speak well, nor was he the most intellectually curious person; but he would surely go down in history as a great conservative leader and he would prove to everyone that it was divine intervention that put him in that White House.

Prematurely, several books at finer book stores claimed just that. Closer to home, the UCF Future wrote an editorial immediately after Katrina that told their readers the way Bush sprang into action proved that he deserved to be regarded as a Great President. And Republican leadership at all levels fell over themselves to tell Americans that they could follow the president or be branded a faithless traitor. The party itself started to seem less like a political entity and more like a cult: Facts and reason were branded as partisan rhetoric from outsiders, and their divinely appointed leader could do wrong no matter what he did. No matter how many lies were told, no matter how many freedoms we were asked to sacrifice, no matter how many issues he bungled, and no matter that his most ardent followers cannot point to even one real accomplishment for his entire time in office—he would show us all.

At what point did they realize what Democrats knew all along.

At what point did they realize they were following a dud.

After months of trying to spin the reckless spending, the scandals, the weakening of our national security, the reckless tax cuts for the wealthy and the oil companies, the warrantless surveillance of our phone and emails, the secret prisons, the torture, the giveaways to the credit card industry and insurance companies, the largest dependence on foreign aid in our history (due to the largest growth in the deficit), the cuts to education and the military, the cherry-picked intelligence, the gross mis-mangement of Iraq, the extreme incompetence of Katrina, and finally, the reasons why they had to oppose independent commissions on anything just mentioned.

My guess of the breaking point? The ports deal. The conservative leadership was now being told to tell their constituents that although the war on terror required sacrifices like giving up essential constitutional liberties, it wasn’t so important that we could risk a slight offense to a supposed ally by refusing to give up control of our ports.

Finally, the conservative leadership in Congress had enough too. It seemed republicans everywhere were waking up from their trance and realizing how much worse things have gotten since the Clinton era. Those books that touted Bush's leadership? All in the discount bin. The UCF Future? After it became apparent that Bush's handling of Katrina showed anything but great leadership, the editorials suddenly became a LOT more balanced. The conservative leadership in the House and Senate? They can't seem to distance themselves fast enough from the sinking ship that is George W. Bush. The conservative leadership will try in the coming months to distance themselves further as the election draws near. (Just remember who was screaming all along that the emperor had no clothes.)

Hillary was right. This administration will go down as one of the worst in our history. It will certainly go down as one of the most corrupt, and it already is in the history books as the most fiscally irresponsible.

Turns out it wasn’t divine intervention at all, but rather a bad election and fear-mongering, respectively, that put W in power. But the illusion of Bush’s integrity and competence is over. America has had enough, and our victories in 2005 proved that.

Right now, there has never been a better opportunity for Democrats. The November elections will finally give America the chance it desperately wants to replace the current leadership with honest and capable Democrats who will refocus Congress’ current misplaced priorities.

Wouldn’t that be refreshing?

Imagine, congressional leaders who can proudly say what they are doing for the American people, as opposed to having to spin what they doing to them.

2 comments
:

Exceptional. I would like to give just a bit more credit to Katrina as the eye opening crack in the Bush Rubber Stamp Levee. I honestly wonder if the Ports Deal would have slipped right on through before the faithful base had been shocked awake by the incompetent response to Katrina.

Great Comment--Yes, I am glad people are waking up. But the unforuntate end is that Bush and Rove know they have lost any independent, and even most moderate republican support. The only thing left to do is to play hard to his base, the extremist faction. They now own Bush lock, stock, and barrel, which is why he he had to watch them drag his friend, Harriet Miers, through the mud and then give them an extremist like Alito. It's sad, sad, sad. I can't wait till November.